Intercom 2015: What We Heard; What We Talked About

1. Elaine Gurian opened the meeting (that's her picture up at the top).  She cautioned her audience that while a portion of the museum-going public wants the same iconic museum it has always known, many institutions are expanding programs and collections access to include traditionally disenfranchised audiences--moving, as she put it, from formal temples to less formal gathering places.

2. Gurian reminded us that museums' primary function is idealogical, and that by their very nature they often reinforce belonging or exclusion. For her, the essential museum of the future looks more like a drop-in service space and less like an occasional day-out museum. She said, ""All public institutions have a role in creating peaceful environments for strangers and thus bringing diverse audiences together." And also asked, "Have you wondered about the diversity of the library and why libraries are more democratic than museums?"

3.  Gurian believes we need to change our basic mindset, understand each visitor's questions, and create spaces that are in service to the visitor rather than the gallery. Her mantra: Institutions that are welcoming, porous, accepting.

4. From Laura Schiavo's panel on Next, Not Best: Workshop on Sustainable Practices we heard from Tony Butler, executive director of the Derby Museums. What an alluring concept to engage community with museum-making and, in doing so, making meaning of the world.  We recommend you visit their website, which is equally alluring and fun.

5. Also part of that panel was Gretchen Jennings, creator of the blog The Empathetic Museum, who said that museums must undergo an inner transformation; and that museums must have a civic vision.

6. And from the Dirty Money session, Bob Janes' quote via video, "that museums are sleepwalking into the future."

7. Last, for everyone who thinks New York City is the apex of all things museum, think again. There is a lot going on in the nation's capital.